I've been using taobao intensively for our business for quite a long time. we are a hardware start-up, we bought components from taobao, make, assemble PCB prototypes from taobao, It's so much better than ebay, for example, they have a IM client for you to chat with the seller, negotiate price and shipping cost in real time, and once the deal is made, they can change the price instantly for you. There also sites that buy taobao things for you and ship them to the US, so all you need is a paypal account or a credit card, and the ability to read Chinese.